Homogeneous Unit Delineation for Interpreting Dynamic Cone Penetrometer Measurements
Abstract
The current investigation is concerned with the homogeneous unit delineation procedure for pavements and subgrade soils using dynamic cone penetrometer (DCP) data as widely employed in the evaluation of the pavement structure components. For the purposes of highlighting statistically homogeneous groups of the measurements along the registered DCP data profile, the conventional (AASHTO) cumulative difference approach procedure has been applied to the profile of DCP characteristic values. The delineating procedure shows significant sensitivity to the existing change in the mean value levels of the DCP measurements. Analysis of the procedure application to the profile of the DCP characteristic values (Penetration Index) and to the original number-of-blows values recorded during the DCP test has been done. The approach simplifies application of the AASHTO delineating procedure when using the original number-of-blows data during the DCP test. The approach produces the boundary position indication for the specific DCP characteristic profiles. Penetration characteristics for the delineated units have been used for predicting the California Bearing Ratio (CBR) parameter. The approach has been supported by Microsoft Excel spreadsheets for the semi-automated analysis of the DCP data and application of the delineation procedure.